John Erhardt
03-11-2008, 9:53 PM
Hi again. I was wondering if I should buy a few new Lie-Niels... no, wait. Sorry. That's not my question.
I really have a quick question for any Stanley #39 users.
So I'm actually in the market for a #39 3/4, though I've had someone offer to sell me a #39 3/8. Trouble is, I don't see much use for a 3/8-in. dado, as it's not a size I can see myself needing often (to my knowledge, that's never stopped someone from buying an otherwise perfectly good vintage plane...).
My gut says that I can cut a 3/4-in. dado by measuring out the dado's location and setting up some kind of straight edge to run the plane against that splits the dado into two equal halves. Then I run the 3/8-in plane down the exposed half and cut to depth before moving the fence over 3/8 of an inch and planing the other half. 3/8 + 3/8 = 6/8 = 3/4.
But will this work, or am I missing an obvious limitation of the tool? I'm not sure if there are nickers on both sides of the body, but this method would mean one nicker isn't nicking anything. And I'd be willing to bet that I'd tip the plane when I planed the second half of the dado, since it would be unsupported on one side. My current method of cutting a dado is to scribe the shoulders, chisel out the waste, and use a router plane to clean up the bottom. So I'm basically not looking for the most efficient way to cut one, but an acceptable one.
So I suspect I should just wait for an affordable #39 3/4 to pop up, but the 1/4 and 3/8 are just so much more common that I'm hoping I can improvise. I guess I'm just wondering if this is more trouble than it's worth, or if I can easily cut 3/4-in. dadoes with an undersized plane and minimal cursing.
Thanks,
J
I really have a quick question for any Stanley #39 users.
So I'm actually in the market for a #39 3/4, though I've had someone offer to sell me a #39 3/8. Trouble is, I don't see much use for a 3/8-in. dado, as it's not a size I can see myself needing often (to my knowledge, that's never stopped someone from buying an otherwise perfectly good vintage plane...).
My gut says that I can cut a 3/4-in. dado by measuring out the dado's location and setting up some kind of straight edge to run the plane against that splits the dado into two equal halves. Then I run the 3/8-in plane down the exposed half and cut to depth before moving the fence over 3/8 of an inch and planing the other half. 3/8 + 3/8 = 6/8 = 3/4.
But will this work, or am I missing an obvious limitation of the tool? I'm not sure if there are nickers on both sides of the body, but this method would mean one nicker isn't nicking anything. And I'd be willing to bet that I'd tip the plane when I planed the second half of the dado, since it would be unsupported on one side. My current method of cutting a dado is to scribe the shoulders, chisel out the waste, and use a router plane to clean up the bottom. So I'm basically not looking for the most efficient way to cut one, but an acceptable one.
So I suspect I should just wait for an affordable #39 3/4 to pop up, but the 1/4 and 3/8 are just so much more common that I'm hoping I can improvise. I guess I'm just wondering if this is more trouble than it's worth, or if I can easily cut 3/4-in. dadoes with an undersized plane and minimal cursing.
Thanks,
J